The Best Horror Movies to Stream on Netflix for Halloween

Whether you spend every month counting down the days until October (aka the real most wonderful time of the year), or you’re just a casual fan of spookiness, the weeks leading up to Halloween are for one thing and one thing only: Watching scary movies. With all the streaming services and endless titles available, it can be difficult to make that crucial game-time decision, which is why we’ve put together this handy list of the best horror movies to stream on Netflix this Halloween.

Here, in no particular order, are 25 awesome horror movies (plus a couple of bonus titles) on Netflix to fit a variety of tastes and styles. From ghosts to found footage to witches and Stephen King — and everything in between — you’re sure to find the perfect thing to stream for Halloween (I’m a poet!).

1. The Witch

Directed by Robert Eggers

A24

Cast: Anya-Taylor Joy, Ralph Ineson, and Kate Dickie.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A 17th century exercise in moral dread featuring a creepy and weirdly meme-able goat. It’s like The Crucible, but scarier.

2. The Ritual

Directed by David Bruckner

Netflix

Cast: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, and Robert-James Collier.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Woods-based horror with a folklore slant, featuring a really cool and original monster design created with mostly practical effects.

3. It Follows

Directed by David Robert Mitchell

RADiUS-TWC

Cast: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, and Olivia Luccardi.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Classic boogeyman-stalker vibes with a contemporary twist – a relatable (but not puritanical) allegory about casual sex.

4. The Void

Directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski

Screen Media Films

Cast: Aaron Poole, Kenneth Welsh and Daniel Fathers.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A visually cool throwback to ’70s cult thrillers that takes a page out of the John Carpenter playbook (practical VFX included).

5. A Dark Song

Directed by Liam Gavin

IFC Midnight

Cast: Steve Oram and Catherine Walker.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Witchy business that’s more focused on character development and rituals than jump scares.

6. The Devil’s Candy

Directed by Sean Byrne

IFC Midnight

Cast: Ethan Embry, Shiri Appleby and Pruitt Taylor Vince.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A satanic horror flick that shreds.

7. Under the Shadow

Directed by Babak Anvari

Vertical Entertainment

Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, and Bobby Manderi.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A movie that’s equal parts heavy and horrifying. Set in 1980s war-torn Tehran, Under the Shadow is the perfect terrifying companion piece for another movie on this list — The Babadook.

8. The Conjuring

Warner Bros.

Directed by James Wan

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A ghost story based on actual events. The Conjuring is peak James Wan, and would make an excellent double feature with The Amityville Horror (the original, not the Ryan Reynolds one).

9. The Boy

Directed by William Brent Bell

STX Entertainment

Cast: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, and James Russell.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Creepy, campy doll horror without all that Child’s Play.

10. Murder Party

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier

Magnet Releasing

Cast: Chris Sharp, Kate Porterfield, and Macon Blair.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A movie that you haven’t seen from the director of Green Room and Blue Ruin.

11. Gerald’s Game

Directed by Mike Flanagan

Netflix

Cast: Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A Stephen King adaptation that’s actually as good as the source material…and an extended squirm-inducing sequence that’s great with a crowd.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: An exceedingly dark horror comedy double feature that makes clever use of the tired found footage approach. (And also full frontal Mark Duplass nudity, if you’re in the market for that sort of thing.)

13. The Invitation

Directed by Karyn Kusama

Drafthouse Films

Cast: Logan Marshall-Green, Emayatzy Corinealdi, and Michiel Huisman.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Grown-up slow-burn horror at its finest with a jaw-dropping third act.

14. The Babadook

Directed by Jennifer Kent

IFC Films

Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman and Daniel Henshall.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Heady horror with a terrifying ghoul and a terrific lead performance. (Would make for an excellent double feature with The Shining.)

15. Train to Busan

Directed by Sang-ho Yeon

Next Entertainment World

Cast: Yoo Gong, Yu-mi Jung, and Dong-seok Ma.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A movie that proves the zombie genre isn’t dead.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Atmospheric horror sci-fi where the scariest thing isn’t an alien who looks like Scarlett Johansson and eats men, but what happens when she tries to become a real human woman.

20. Evolution

Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic

IFC Midnight

Cast: Max Brebant, Roxane Duran, and Julie-Marie Parmentier.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: More dreamy sci-fi horror vibes like Under the Skin.

21. Interview With the Vampire

Directed by Neil Jordan

Warner Bros.

Cast: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: An odd couple dark comedy about two immortal men with beautiful hair trying to raise a tiny vampire child together.

22. Raw

Directed by Julia Ducournau

Focus World

Cast: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, and Laurent Lucas.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: A stunning female coming-of-age story…with a cannibal twist.

23. The Childhood of a Leader

Directed by Brady Corbet

IFC Films

Cast: Liam Cunningham, Robert Pattinson, and Berenice Bejo.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Unconventional, existential horror — like an exploration of the childhood of a fictional fascist ruler presented in the style of Michael Haneke, perhaps.

24. The Eyes of My Mother

Directed by Nicolas Pesce

Magnet Releasing

Cast: Kika Magalhães, Will Brill, and Diana Agostini.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Gory arthouse character study about an isolated and repressed young woman — think May, but with a more sophisticated filmmaker behind the camera.

25. Scream 4

Directed by Wes Craven

The Weinstein Company

Cast: Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, and Neve Campbell.

Watch when you’re in the mood for: Giving this delightful meta-horror sequel another chance — it deserves it.